


Shipping Business

by dutchmoxie



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-01-19
Packaged: 2018-03-08 05:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3197888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dutchmoxie/pseuds/dutchmoxie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke Griffin is so damn tired of her students' giggling whenever she gets near Bellamy Blake. Not that she doesn't want him, of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shipping Business

The students were doing it again. The whispering and the giggling and the pointing whenever she was in the same room as Bellamy Blake, the AP History teacher. She would be in the midst of explaining the bones of the body - if only some of the students actually showed interest in Biology - when the giggles started again.

“Yes, mr. Blake?” she addressed him without looking up.

“That is an interesting skill,” he remarked, and she looked up from the ulna. “You knew it was me without even looking up.”

How was she going to explain that? While she had started to develop somewhat of a sixth sense when it came to his presence - her body just knew when he was near - she wasn’t exactly being honest this time. The kids were not supposed to show as some sort of an alarm set for his presence and his presence only. He was never going to be allowed to find out just how interested the students were in the two of them. In the two of them together.

“Who else could it be?” she tried to gloss over it. “Now, what do you need?”

The titters continued unabated, and she was already trying to compile a list of the worst offenders so she might try to get more information from them about what started this whole thing - so she could avoid that in the future. Maybe it was best if she avoided him as much as possible. She only just got hired at this school, she could not risk the rumors threatening her job security.

“You,” one of the students next to her whispered to their friend.

Dear Lord, this was not some kind of romance scene straight from a movie. This was just a professional conversation between two co-workers who had not interacted much since they were both in high school. Once upon a time, she’d been high school besties with his younger sister. Back then, she never even imagined that the juvenile delinquent with the motorcycle and the sarcastic attitude could ever be prevailed upon to shape young minds.

He’d pulled himself together - quite well, actually - since then. The rebel had grown into the nerd he always swore he would never be. But Clarke and his sister Octavia knew better than that - Bellamy Blake was pretty much the biggest history geek known to the world. Heck, he’d been allowed to name his sister and he’d called her Octavia, of all things.

It was a never-ending source of delight for Clarke in her teenage years - finding the moments in which Bellamy Blake showed his true self. Followed by some of the most terrifying moments in which she showed him her real self - and he never hated her for it, or thought her weird.

“Earth to Miss Griffin,” Bellamy spoke, dark eyes twinkling with amusement.

“What was it that you needed, Mister Blake?” she put on the most professional face she knew.

So yeah, maybe a part of her was hoping that he really would say that he needed her. It would validate the stupid fantasies that kept running through her head about empty classrooms after hours and closets and secret encounters that would never happen outside her lurid dreams. But dreams were all they were - it would never be reality.

“Could I borrow your master key?” he asked so very nicely. “I fear that I left mine at home again.”

Bellamy was maybe one step away from batting his seriously long eyelashes at her, and that would just make the students respond even more. She was tired of the distraction, so she handed over her keys to him and pretended not to notice the spark between the two of them when their fingers touched.

“You are too kind, Miss Griffin,” Bellamy had the audacity to wink at her.

She was going to have to talk to him about professional behavior - again. It was his fault that the students had started this ‘shipping’ business in the first place. They noticed that Bellamy acted differently around Miss Griffin than the other female teachers, and instead of attributing that to a friendship - which wasn’t quite right - they attributed it to a secret relationship that was dying to be brought out into the open - which was completely wrong.

“Now, class,” she turned her back immediately. “The ulna.”

Even though she wanted to, she did not look back at Bellamy until the classroom door closed behind him.

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“What the hell was that?” she confronted her fellow teacher in the hallway after school.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bellamy had already unbuttoned the first few buttons on his shirt, uncaring of the school’s dress code.

That was a bigger problem - she had to wear the damn skirt and the stockings and the blouse buttoned up all the way to the top, but Bellamy just liked to flout the rules, pushing up his sleeves and leaving the tan skin of his neck completely exposed. No wonder that some of the students doodled ‘Mrs. Blake’ in their binders.

“No winking at me when I’m teaching,” she pushed her black glasses further up her nose, trying to look even more severe. “None of that flirting thing that makes all the girls swoon. I know you, Blake. It won’t fly with me.”

Even though he really tried to look like he was just an innocent, his roguish smirk was not going away. Damn him, that was one of the things that got to her most, remnants of her stupid teenage crush on the bad boy who was both sexy and incredibly intelligent. His smirk and the way he moved, and… No, this was unprofessional. She was Clarke Griffin, she was the best damn Biology teacher in the district and she was not going to let the constant temptation of Bellamy Blake ruin that. She would stay professional and distant and safe.

“Sorry, princess,” he resurrected a childhood nickname that she only ever secretly enjoyed.

It was a thing that was just theirs, even when Octavia heard she just ignored it after a quick roll of her eyes. Clarke may have protested out loud, but secretly she liked that he had a nickname for her that he never used for anyone else.

“Bellamy,” she warned yet again. “Unprofessional.”

He laughed then, a warm sound that washed over her in waves. Okay, so maybe she was not completely immune to the attraction of Bellamy Blake, but she was damn well going to act like it in public. She had a reputation to uphold, not just when it came to her intelligence, but also in front of her students. She was a strict but just teacher of Biology who avoided the typical giggles of the reproduction chapters by being frank with her students. She used no euphemisms and synonyms, and explained clearly about the dangers of unsafe sex. Yes, some of the parents wished she wasn’t so clear about that, but since she’d rather the students were knowledgeable about their inevitable teenage experimentations with sex… They should at least know about prophylactics - and about the female orgasm, elusive as it may be.

It wasn’t professional to preach about safety and not just acting on every urge only to jump the hottest teacher on staff - also, her students were never to be involved in her love or sex life, no matter how they gossipped about her and Bellamy Blake.

“Oh, princess,” Bellamy sighed jokingly. “Are you ever going to let down your hair?”

“Do you have a sudden urge to climb hair?” she raised an eyebrow, really trying not to fiddle with the stray lock of hair that kept falling into her eyes.

Sure, her hair was long enough to brush her lower back when wet, but she was no Rapunzel, even though she had a mean swing with a frying pan. It was just, the joke was easier than to reply seriously to his words. Because she knew that some of the other teachers saw her as boring and dull and perhaps even distant and harsh. She just thought that Bellamy knew her better than that.

“Princess,” he clearly didn’t understand.

“Stop calling me that,” she grinded her teeth. “And don’t harass me again. I will do as I please. I have no obligations to let down my hair, or whatever else you want to call it.”

She turned on her heel and prepared herself to march away from him without so much as another word. This was the one topic that she could never stay calm over - she was just not the kind of person who made friends easily, or who wanted to make their coworkers into their friends. She was perfectly content with the occasional hang-out with Octavia, and regular movie nights on her couch with Monty and Miller. Jasper and Maya showed up on occasion if they could find a babysitter. And those calm nights were enough. She had no need to go out and get drunk, and while she occasionally missed having a warm man to fall into bed with, she could do without. She was content without. She did not need more friends, she did not need to let down her hair for perfect strangers just so that they would feel more at ease with her. Clarke Griffin was not going to change for anyone.

“Wait,” Bellamy put a hand on her arm.

“What?” she bit out, ready to push him off if he said something stupid.

Her hands were clenched without her ever directing a conscious effort towards doing so. Her entire body had tensed up with his stupid words, a side effect of her feeling almost betrayed by someone she had known for so very long. Bellamy had seen her as an awkward pre-teen, and he’d seen how far she has come in the intervening years.

“I apologize,” his voice softened. “I know that I was way out of line. I know I disappointed you just now, and I sincerely apologize. I hope you can forgive me.”

And just like that, she realized that he really did understand. Bellamy was impulsive and on occasion said things that he regretted later - he really was a lot like his younger sister. The Blake siblings had the tendency to throw caution to the wind in their efforts to enjoy the moment - something that she had never quite managed to do.

“Apology accepted,” she continued in her formal tone.

“I miss you, Clarke,” Bellamy was not done, apparently. “I believe we were friends once upon a time. And now we work together, and still you try to treat me like we’ve never run into each other in the hallway, like you’ve never walked in on me… in various positions and states of dress. You treat me like a stranger, or no, that’s not it. You treat me like I’m just like anyone else - and I’m not. I don’t want to be just anyone to you, princess.”

Well, that certainly brought back some memories - especially about some states of (un)dress that she had witnessed over the years. She wonders what he looks like now, when he’s sure no one’s looking and he’s mostly undressed. She wonders if he would still blush if she came across him now, and she wonders if she would still dream of him.

Gods, this is so mortifying to think about, only he actually said something important that requires a response from her. And her response will make or break this potential relationship, so no pressure whatsoever. She can be great under pressure, truly she can, but the relationship area has always been a terrible exception to that.

This is not the right moment, and certainly not the right place. The students from this morning’s Biology class are still lurking in the hallway, trying to catch a glimpse of something happening between her and Bellamy Blake. She is sure that there will be a mass text sent to the entire class any minute now. Damn the children and their shipping!

“Can I tell you my answer later?” she is flustered and awkward. “We shouldn’t be talking about this here. Not with those kids still watching us.”

Well, she doesn’t outright point them out, but Bellamy isn’t stupid. He knows they’re being watched. She just hopes he doesn’t understand what the students are really chatting about when the giggling in class starts.

“They’re a little too obsessed with us,” Bellamy does understand. “Apparently they really want us to get together. And I’m phrasing that delicately.”

He knows! How did he find out? She told the students not to mention anything to him! It is bad enough that she knows about this, but the sheer mortification of him knowing anything at all about this shipping business is just… Oh boy. Her students are going to be in so much trouble tomorrow.

“I told them not to tell you,” she blurts out instead, making it even worse.

“Please,” Bellamy sighs. “How do you think this thing got started in the first place? I opened my stupid mouth and said something about you and then they started making mix tapes about our relationship and there was no way for me to stop it.”

There is no way to tell if that makes it worse or better.

“I’ll talk to you tonight,” she stammers. “I’ll come over after dinner.”

And then she quickly makes her escape, before their captive audience catches anything about their conversation. If they have even the slightest encouragement that something is going on between her and Bellamy, the mix tapes and the stories and the giggling will never end. And she would like to be able to teach normal classes again some time this century.

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She does not Google herself over dinner that night. And she also doesn’t find any seriously detailed stories about her imagined love affair with one Bellamy Blake. Okay, these students are taking it too damn far. At least there is nothing too explicit - yet.

As she hauls her ass over to Bellamy’s place - she doesn’t even have to check his address because she’s been there a million times when O still lived with him - she doesn’t check her hair and her stupid make-up in the rearview mirror of her crappy car. She also doesn’t pull at her skirt to make sure it covers her down to her knees. She is a damn fool.

At least she knows what answer she is going to give him. Knowing Bellamy, that will be the first question he asks her when she walks through the door. So she goes over her wording again and again as she tries to muster up the courage to ring the doorbell. She still hasn’t managed to get it right when Bellamy opens the door, a hint of a smirk on his face.

“Did I ruin your prep time?” he teases, ushering her inside.

“My answer is yes,” she ignores this new question and instead tries to answer the older one. “I will be more to you than a coworker. I would like to go on a date somewhere where our students aren’t practically stalking us.”

Bellamy laughs, but it is not at her. Clearly he has his own personal experiences with the crazy things their students get up to in their spare time - when they are supposed to be doing their homework or studying for important tests. Maybe she should give another pop quiz to her morning class just to see if they’ve been paying attention to her lectures or to her imagined sex life. God, she really hopes it’s the former.

“I’m very glad you said yes,” he has finally closed the door behind her. “Seal it with a kiss?”

How very like the smooth moves he displays in the damn stories. His eyes twinkle with mischief, and she knows that he knows as well. Surely he did some Googling of his own and found the same results.

“Shut up and kiss me already,” she physically can’t say the next line of dialogue without a roll of her eyes. “Okay, I need to talk to their English teacher, because surely they’ve learned about cliches by now.”

That makes Bellamy laugh, and it is mid-laugh that she finally presses her lips to his in their first kiss. It is awkward because he is taller and the angle isn’t great, but it’s wonderful nonetheless, and better than any story that their students could have written. Besides, first kisses are rarely perfect - and this gives them an excuse to try and try and try until they get it perfect.

They fall asleep on his couch, mid-plan about how to get revenge on their students. Yes, the most vocal students can expect some interesting match-ups for their next project. See, it’s not just the students who can get in on the shipping business. 


End file.
